To Homeschool or Not To Homeschool!

Wow, life brings us to strange places, places we would never have expected to be.  Some are good and some, not so much.  We have a beautiful six year old daughter and if you would have asked me 6 years ago if I would ever consider homeschooling the answer would have been a resounding NO!  Be careful, because your no's could end up being maybes, then they might turn into a yes, louder than the before-mentioned NO.

Well, some things have happened to urge us to consider homeschooling.  When I first started looking into it fear overcame me.  "I am not qualified to teach children... I don't even know how to start... What in the world will happen to my daughter if I choose to do it?.. Won't my daughter be scarred for life?.."  and on and on the questions go.

But as I have researched the subject, going to dozens of blogs, dozens of websites and dozens of curriculum websites I have found that everyone who makes this decision goes through the same kind of stress and worries when trying to come up with the right decision for them.  That is a comfort, though not as much comfort as the statistics I have found going through many different sources.

If you go on education alone, homeschoolers test much higher on average than traditional school kids.  They transition into the non-school world much better and colleges are now recruiting homeschoolers because they work better on their own and are more self-motivated.  That was enough to get me to thinking more clearly.

Then the next thing that I researched was how it would affect my family and it's dynamics.  Would we get closer or would it drive a wedge between us.  That was exciting to read about as well because blog after blog, story after story, book after book all I found was that the bond between children and parents and siblings was strengthened and sealed on a deeper level than ever before.  I want that too!

When I started to see all the opportunities and possibilities, far more than I could share here, I started to get excited... very excited!  Again, not what I ever expected to feel when the word homeschool was ever mentioned.

We have not made a formal decision to homeschool but we know that it is a serious consideration and probability and that thought makes me excited.. with still a bit of worry.  How will our family take it, our friends?  But we know that if we listen to God, research wisely, make no rash decisions that we will be able to come to the right decision for our family.  God knows what is best for us, and He will guide our every path during this decision.

So even though we still are asking the question, To Homeschool or Not To Homeschool, I know we are on the right path!

Have a blessed day!  It is sunny!  That means fun in the sun!

God's Covenant Love

I went to my Wednesday morning bible study today at my church, and as with any other bible study you don't always expect to have exciting new revelation.  You always hope for it but that isn't always the case.  Sometimes the information you hear is the same information heard a thousand times and it tends to become white noise.

When I sat in my chair and settled in to hear the study that was being presented by our pastor, Pastor Jon, I was expecting it to be that kind of day.  We are studying God's Covenant Love and my mind was already thinking of a dozen different directions this was going to go, a dozen places I have already been, and a dozen places I didn't want to go hash over one more time.  I didn't want to be bored and wonder, "why did I come again?"

Don't get me wrong, hearing about God's love is wonderful.  I am very grateful for it, more grateful than I can ever express.  But I want to hear something more, something deeper.  I want to learn!  Not just chew the same words over and over again, never really growing or increasing in my knowledge of who God really is and what does He really want, expect and require of me in my relationship with Him.

So, with a sense of dread I opened my ears to listen to what was taught, and with great joy I was surprised to learn some amazing things.  This covenant thing God has for us is pretty amazing and much deeper than most of us in the Western world can even fathom.  In our country a covenant is important, but not much more (if any) than a contract.  We make a covenant in marriage but how many people in this country break that?  That number is staggering, even amongst Christians where it shouldn't be.

But to God and the people of the bible, a covenant was something extremely serious, it was most of the time lifelong (sometimes generational), it was binding and unbreakable.  The basic covenant ceremony was very detailed and even gruesome in some ways (animal sacrifice, sharing of your own blood) because it was meant to drive home the point between two parties that the covenant being made, was serious, final and unbreakable.

A covenant brought together two parties and those two parties were now one, they shared strengths and weaknesses and because of that they were truly bound in a way nothing else could bind them.

Our Lord made covenants with us in the Old Testament, and we constantly failed our part.  But God never failed His.  Time and time again He would deliver us from our mistakes, our failings, our sins and give us great rewards and favor, even though we certainly did not deserve it.  But He made a covenant, and even though we did not hold our end up, HE held his up without reservation because HE promised and HE never fails a promise.  He never promises us something and doesn't deliver, ever!  Can we say the same?  Even with good intentions, we fail.  But He doesn't, EVER!

The New Testament is all about His new covenant with us.  And as with the Old Testament covenant, the Lord has held true to His part of the new covenant, and what a wonderful thing that is.

The Lord sent His only Son, the Son He loved, to come down here on earth to live amongst us and be tempted just as we are, only He lived a pure and holy life, one without sin.  He then sentenced His only Son to die a horrible and terrible death.  Why?  To cover your sin, to cover my sin, to make a new covenant with us so that we do not have to suffer a life without our Lord.

Jesus, the Son of God gave us the ultimate sacrifice that will free us of our bondage to sin.  Just like in the Old Testament in Genesis 22:8 when Abraham takes his son Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him to the Lord, Isaac asked his dad where the lamb is they were going to sacrifice and Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son."  And that is what He did.

Remember Abraham didn't have to sacrifice his son because the Lord provided a ram for him to use instead because of Abraham's obedience.  The same is true for today, the Lord provided the sacrifice for us and that was His Son's life (Jesus) on the cross.  Now all we have to do is accept His gift, ask for forgiveness, show true Godly sorrow and repentance by turning from our sin and following HIM!

What an amazing gift we have.  And how much more amazing when we realize how serious God takes His part in the covenant.  How serious will you be with Him, how serious will you take this covenant?